I am assuming the title of this inspirational piece makes no sense. It is a term I found within a short article I read. I will explain. I read quite a number of things which are potentially interesting, but I have no clue what I might glean from it and whether there will be anything of use for me. I now read quite a bit of stuff online. I use some social media, like YouTube and others such venues. I certainly read beyond what most people probably consider religious literature. But much of it somehow relates to the things I do in religion.
The article I latched on to had an inviting title (for me). The title declared, “We spent a day shadowing Google interns.” I assume everyone knows about Google. It is the most-used search engine. Of course, it is the name of a business, but it is so much more than that. The company name actually has become a verb in our language. People talk about “googling” something. Or we can be in a group and something comes up in the group which no one knows anything about. Someone will pipe up and say, “google it.” An answer or some information immediately comes onto the screen and, voila, we have discovered something.
The article intrigued me because I figured Google probably had a special kind of internship. Surely, it would be quite competitive. I deal most of my working time with undergraduates. They all should do some kind of internship. It is not that the internship is such a big deal. What they actually need is experience and that predictably comes through internships.
But what I also know is some internships are not very good. Sometimes all the internships turn out to be is a glorified car hop. The student spends all her time getting coffee. He does photo copying. There is no real learning or responsibilities. Virtually nothing is gained from such an internship. Surely Google would be different. So that was my hope to discover, as I began to read the article.
I was not disappointed. Google does have a special thing going. In fact, in 2019 Google received 125,000 applications! You get a feel for this specialness when you become aware, “With this program, you are a full-time employee and are expected to produce work as such even though you’re an intern.” It was fascinating to read through the article. But then something hit me and that’s what prompted the idea that this was also an inspirational piece. It came in the form of three questions.
Google is looking for three things in potential interns. The first question is: “Are you intellectually curious?” It occurred to me this is also a key spiritual question. It is very difficult to imagine any one of those early disciples of Jesus to have left their nets and followed him, had they not been intellectually curious. We can say they felt drawn to follow. They were intrigued, to be sure. I am confident they were curious. Anyone who is a spiritual seeker is curious. And even when we feel like we are gradually becoming a spiritual finder, we don’t lose our curiosity. When we lose our curiosity, we lose some of the Spirit we have been discovering. We wind up with dead churches!
The second question Google wants to know is: “Do you work well in an ambiguous environment?” That is a fantastic question. I would argue we all live in an ambiguous environment. Some of us manage to make enough order and routine in our environment, it seems manageable. Some of us manage even to make it boring. But ultimately, it is ambiguous. Most of us don’t know the date of our death. We don’t know a lot of things.
The goal of being rooted in the Spirit is to have a center when the ambiguity of the world gets to be too much. We can easily be tossed by the winds of turmoil, uncertainty, and complexity so that we hardly know who we are and what is happening. I think that was the point of Jesus’ offer of discipleship. It did not take away the ambiguity, but did give us a way of being enlivened disciples through the process.
Google’s final question is equally penetrating: “Do you get excited by tackling a really big problem?” If we say Yes to becoming disciples, then we should be saying yes to a ministry of tackling really big problems. You name it: conflict, violence, climate pollution---a whole host of things the creative God of a world declared “good” did not have in mind. Surely spirituality cannot be solely an inner journey of grooviness that ends in some kind of bliss, while the world goes to hell. It is hard for me to read Jesus through that lens.
Google is looking for interns to fit that bill of three questions. I think those questions are actually appropriate spiritual questions for seekers of authentic spiritual experience and meaning. I have no doubt Jesus was looking for “the real deal” in the people he called. I suspect the Buddha and Mohammed had the same thing in mind. Of course, there are other internships which offer virtually nothing.
And there are interns filling those kind of empty, meaningless ways of living. Surely, there are pseudo-spiritualties offering folks a facsimile of a spiritual experience/, instead of the real deal. Remember, Google interns are full-time employees. They are not pretending or simply making do until they can get a real position. They are learning, growing and serving.
That sounds to me a lot like a real-deal spirituality.
The article I latched on to had an inviting title (for me). The title declared, “We spent a day shadowing Google interns.” I assume everyone knows about Google. It is the most-used search engine. Of course, it is the name of a business, but it is so much more than that. The company name actually has become a verb in our language. People talk about “googling” something. Or we can be in a group and something comes up in the group which no one knows anything about. Someone will pipe up and say, “google it.” An answer or some information immediately comes onto the screen and, voila, we have discovered something.
The article intrigued me because I figured Google probably had a special kind of internship. Surely, it would be quite competitive. I deal most of my working time with undergraduates. They all should do some kind of internship. It is not that the internship is such a big deal. What they actually need is experience and that predictably comes through internships.
But what I also know is some internships are not very good. Sometimes all the internships turn out to be is a glorified car hop. The student spends all her time getting coffee. He does photo copying. There is no real learning or responsibilities. Virtually nothing is gained from such an internship. Surely Google would be different. So that was my hope to discover, as I began to read the article.
I was not disappointed. Google does have a special thing going. In fact, in 2019 Google received 125,000 applications! You get a feel for this specialness when you become aware, “With this program, you are a full-time employee and are expected to produce work as such even though you’re an intern.” It was fascinating to read through the article. But then something hit me and that’s what prompted the idea that this was also an inspirational piece. It came in the form of three questions.
Google is looking for three things in potential interns. The first question is: “Are you intellectually curious?” It occurred to me this is also a key spiritual question. It is very difficult to imagine any one of those early disciples of Jesus to have left their nets and followed him, had they not been intellectually curious. We can say they felt drawn to follow. They were intrigued, to be sure. I am confident they were curious. Anyone who is a spiritual seeker is curious. And even when we feel like we are gradually becoming a spiritual finder, we don’t lose our curiosity. When we lose our curiosity, we lose some of the Spirit we have been discovering. We wind up with dead churches!
The second question Google wants to know is: “Do you work well in an ambiguous environment?” That is a fantastic question. I would argue we all live in an ambiguous environment. Some of us manage to make enough order and routine in our environment, it seems manageable. Some of us manage even to make it boring. But ultimately, it is ambiguous. Most of us don’t know the date of our death. We don’t know a lot of things.
The goal of being rooted in the Spirit is to have a center when the ambiguity of the world gets to be too much. We can easily be tossed by the winds of turmoil, uncertainty, and complexity so that we hardly know who we are and what is happening. I think that was the point of Jesus’ offer of discipleship. It did not take away the ambiguity, but did give us a way of being enlivened disciples through the process.
Google’s final question is equally penetrating: “Do you get excited by tackling a really big problem?” If we say Yes to becoming disciples, then we should be saying yes to a ministry of tackling really big problems. You name it: conflict, violence, climate pollution---a whole host of things the creative God of a world declared “good” did not have in mind. Surely spirituality cannot be solely an inner journey of grooviness that ends in some kind of bliss, while the world goes to hell. It is hard for me to read Jesus through that lens.
Google is looking for interns to fit that bill of three questions. I think those questions are actually appropriate spiritual questions for seekers of authentic spiritual experience and meaning. I have no doubt Jesus was looking for “the real deal” in the people he called. I suspect the Buddha and Mohammed had the same thing in mind. Of course, there are other internships which offer virtually nothing.
And there are interns filling those kind of empty, meaningless ways of living. Surely, there are pseudo-spiritualties offering folks a facsimile of a spiritual experience/, instead of the real deal. Remember, Google interns are full-time employees. They are not pretending or simply making do until they can get a real position. They are learning, growing and serving.
That sounds to me a lot like a real-deal spirituality.
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